Out to discredit the advocates of limited government

(’76 Contributor) Next time you read a news story about racism at Tea Parties from some dishonest source like the NYT’s Bob Herbert, bear in mind this Crash the Tea Party website.

Here are some people openly recruiting infiltrators to pose as Tea Partiers and behave in ways intended to reflect badly on the Tea Parties, so as to damage the public perception of the movement. Since the claims that Herbert made have failed to be corroborated in the multiple videos of the events in question, that pre-established narrative must now be bolstered by whatever means necessary.

Of course, there almost certainly are some racists and other disagreeable people at many Tea Parties (which of course has NEVER been the case at a union rally or an anti-globalism rally or some other such leftist thing)–there are bound to be some unsavory individuals at the margins of ANY gathering of substantial size for whatever cause–but the organized effort to smear the entire movement based on some individuals’ unrepresentative behavior is truly disgraceful. It’s McCarthyism.

It’s difficult for me to understand how anybody could, in good conscience, attack people whose central message is that the founding principles of American government should be adhered to. No matter how awkward or embarrassing somebody’s effort to stand up and proclaim that message, how can you not be ashamed to do anything other than applaud him for it? And the idea that it’s a generally awkward or embarrassing movement is just propaganda, from what I’ve seen–certainly some of the individual efforts have been awkward, but so what? I’ve met very admirable and impressive folks involved with the movement.

What is wrong with people who are trying to marginalize ideas like limited, responsive government, government of, by, and for the people? That such efforts are widespread in THIS country really sickens me.

Then again, maybe there’s something even more insidious going on than an infiltration agitprop effort by Tea Party opponents. Maybe it’s one layer deeper–this recruitment effort is organized by the Tea Party itself, to create the impression that its opponents are unscrupulous enough to resort to such infiltration tactics. Or maybe it’s even deeper than that: Maybe the Tea Party opponents want to create the impression that the Tea Party would resort to creating a false recruiting effort attributed to Tea Party opponents. Or maybe it’s an even deeper layer of insidiousness than that… [Or maybe someone needs to call the fantasy conspiracy helpline for counseling – Editor]

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